The Christmas and New Year of My Childhood

     The days of Christmas that I always cherish are those times I spent Christmas helping out in our fruit store in Quiapo. My brothers, sister, and cousins who happen to have a fruit store beside ours had lots of fun selling fruits, calling out to customers to come and buy fruits from us, and getting the customers' payment and handing them their change. Our aunt who owned the store would always cook sumptuous lunch and dinner for us and our helpers. The fruit racks would overflow with apples, oranges, pears and grapes. The only time that things would quiet down was after lunch. The din would pick up again around 3:00 in the afternoon and carry on until midnight. The mayor allows street hawkers to have the street for themselves during the Christmas season. We took advantage of this to have boxes of apples, oranges, and other fruits stacked on top of each other. I was usually the cashier and being young, I felt excited about handling bundles of bills when it came time for my uncle and aunt to count the sale for the day. The above mentioned scene was the same during New Year's Eve. At around 11:00 in the evening, we would start packing things up and the entire clan would celebrate New Year in our home in Mandaluyong. There was plenty of food on the table and almost all the Filipino dishes that you could think of are on that table. As the hour of the New Year appraoches, we would start exploding firecrackers and make a lot of noise once the clock strikes 12 midnight. After the noise has died down, I would lead the entire clan in saying the rosary as our way of thnking the heavens for a wonderful year.
     One funny thing that I can't foreget about celebrating the New Year at home was when my uncles tried out a new way of roasting chicken. They pushed a stake through the chicken and stood it upright befoire covering it with a metal drum. During the first attempt, the chicken turned into ash. The following year, my uncles got it right. I also remember the that time when my cousin stuffed too many firecrackers in the pockets of his shorts. To his surprise and our amusement, the firecrakers in his pockets exploded.